270 KAIPARA RIVER. [PART II. 



half-carbonized wood, besides kauri and pohutu- 

 kaua, remains of tree-ferns, indistinct impressions 

 of smaller ferns, and a kind of typha all which 

 plants are still found in the island. Extensive beds, 

 four feet thick, of the same lignite, and overlaid by 

 sandstone, are likewise found round the south head 

 of Hokianga ; they are then lost beneath the surface, 

 but appear again near the north head of the Kaipara. 

 The intermediate space, near the sea-shore, consists 

 of sand-hills, which are covered with a running 

 carex, and farther inland with a scanty vegetation 

 of fern. In some places hereabouts I met with 

 small carnelians, magnetic ironsand, and boulders 

 of brown iron-ore. 



In order to reach the harbour of Waitemata from 

 Kaipara, we leave the Kaipara proper where it nar- 

 rows and ceases to be affected by the tide. The 

 road leads over hills of an unpromising aspect, but 

 a most magnificent prospect over the surrounding 

 country opens from them to our view. To the 

 north we overlook the large estuary of the Kaipara ; 

 to the west the valley of the Kaipara proper, its 

 meandering stream, and the hills of Manukao, 

 which are mostly wooded ; to the east grotesque- 

 shaped hills on the coast ; and by advancing a little 

 farther we overlook the basin of the Manukao and 

 Waitemata harbour. The entrance into the Gulf 

 of Hauraki is pointed out by Cape Colville, the 

 southern headland, which is about sixty miles dis- 

 tant, and by the Great Barrier Island, which ap- 

 nears dimly on the horizon. 



